Computer-Operated Car Takes Congressman for a Ride

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) yelled at his driver on the way to the airport on Sept. 6, but the driver didn’t even bother to respond.

It was a computer.

Shuster, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was testing a driverless car, designed by Carnegie Mellon University researchers, on a 30-mile ride to Pittsburgh International Airport.

One of the researchers was positioned in the driver’s seat – just in case. (Or maybe to make sure that people in other cars didn’t freak out on seeing no one in the driver’s seat.)

A video of the experiment shows the man in the driver’s seat gesturing but not steering (though he did once use the steering wheel as a precaution). Cameras, laser sensors and radar help the car steer, check the speed of other traffic and detect pedestrians, road signs and the like.